Illinois Bank & Trust is expanding its footprint into Rosemont, IL, with a new commercial loan production office. Jeff Armstrong will be leading this office as Chicagoland market president. In his role, Armstrong will be responsible for assisting commercial and middle-market businesses with their lending needs, efficiencies in payables and receivables and other activities to help them grow.

Prior to joining Illinois Bank & Trust, Armstrong was a director for Accord Financial (formerly known as CapX Partners) as well as vice president at Beacon Funding. With more than 25 years of commercial lending and banking experience, Armstrong has a background in relationship building and portfolio management. Both at Accord and Beacon, he established bank markets channels and capital markets lines of business. Prior to that, Armstrong led commercial banking teams as group head at Fifth Third Bank in Chicago. He started his career at American National Bank & Trust of Chicago (now JPMorgan Chase’s middle-market group).

“We are thrilled to have Jeff Armstrong join our team,” Jeff Hultman, CEO of Illinois Bank & Trust, said. “Jeff brings a strong background in commercial and middle-market banking, sales leadership and knowledge of the commercial markets in Chicagoland. As we continue to expand into the Chicagoland region, we are excited to have an experienced team who can assist our commercial clients with finding the right solutions to grow their business. Our team will be able to provide the strength of a national holding company with the local leadership, decision making and products and services that match big banks.”

“Over the past 10 years, I have become familiar with Illinois Bank & Trust and its parent organization, Heartland Financial USA, Inc.,” Armstrong said. “Their unique business model and client-centric approach to serving the needs of middle-market companies has impressed me. I am extremely excited to be joining the team and expanding our presence in Chicago with the backing of a very strong banking holding company with over $18 billion in assets.”